Dynastic politics carries a negative connotation, but it is unfair to solely attribute its promotion to any single party in Haryana Assembly election. The allocation of tickets by the national and regional political parties – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) – for the Assembly election in the State has demonstrated the influence of dynastic ties in furthering careers across the political spectrum.
In its first list of 67 out of 90 Assembly seats, BJP has tried to play all cards including giving tickets to kin of prominent party leaders in order to score a hat-trick in the State despite strong anti-incumbency sentiment.
The BJP seems to have kept aside its oft-repeated principled stand against dynastic politics. The party has named the grandchildren of three former Chief Ministers among nine people who hail from prominent political families in its first list of 67 names for the Assembly elections in the State, triggering allegations of dynastic politics from the opposition.
The grandchildren of former Chief Ministers — Rao Birender Singh, Bansi Lal, and Bhajan Lal — have been nominated by the BJP. The formidable Lal trio former chief ministers — Devi Lal, Bansi Lal, and Bhajan Lal, separately ruled the State for a total of over 30 years and birthed the fiercely competitive clan-based politics that came to shape Haryana.
As far as the lists of candidates released by various political parties for Haryana polls are concerned, so far, the BJP has topped the list with nine candidates hailing from known political families.
Arti Singh Rao — daughter of Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh and the grand-daughter of former Chief Minister Rao Birender Singh — has got a ticket to contest from the Ateli constituency. She is among seven women the party has fielded.
Shruti Choudhry — daughter of Rajya Sabha member Kiran Choudhry, who recently switched from Congress party — has been fielded from Tosham. The veteran politician and former Congress Minister Vinod Sharma’s wife and Ambala Mayor Shakti Rani Sharma, has been fielded from Kalka, just days after she left the Haryana Janchetna Party to join the BJP. Bhajan Lal’s grandson, Bhavya Bishnoi who is sitting MLA from Adampur has also been named in the list.
In its first list of 32 candidates, Congress played very safe by naming all the sitting MLAs in their constituencies concerned. Many sitting MLAs in Congress are relatives of prominent party leaders. Neeraj Sharma, son of former Haryana Minister and Congress leader Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, was given a ticket. He is currently MLA from Faridabad NIT assembly segment.
Amit Sihag, grandson of Devi Lal and sitting MLA, has been named from Dabwali; while Chiranjeev Rao, son of senior Congress leader Ajay Singh Yadav, has been fielded from Rewari. Mohammad Ilyas and Aftab Ahmed, who are also relatives of senior Congress leaders, have been fielded from Punahana and Nuh, respectively.
Moreover, Haryana’s former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala’s son Abhay Chautala and grandson Arjun Chautala has been included among the eight candidates announced by the party for the Vidhan Sabha polls. Abhay and Arjun are contesting election from Ellenabad and Rania Assembly seats, respectively.
INLD’s then state president Nafe Singh Rathi and a two-time MLA from Bahadurgarh was shot dead allegedly by members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang in his constituency in February this year. Now his wife Sheela Rathi will be contesting as INLD nominee from Bahadurgarh.
BJP leader Aditya Devi Lal, the grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal, who joined the INLD on Sunday, was fielded from Dabwali Assembly constituency.
Jannayak Janta Party has declared its first list of candidates on 15 Assembly seats. Senior JJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala has been fielded from Uchana Kalan, from where he is a sitting MLA. JJP has fielded Dushyant’s brother and senior leader Digvijay Singh Chautala from Dabwali seat.
JJP is headed by Dushyant and Digvijay's father and former MP Ajay Singh Chautala. The party has yet not named its candidate from Badhra where Dushyant's mother Naina Chautala is the sitting MLA.
On the remaining seats in which BJP, Congress, INLD and JJP are yet to announce their candidates, their leaders including Ministers, several legislators, office-bearers and senior leaders too have presented the names of their children as eligible candidates.
Political observer opined that now, without exception, dynasty politics is well entrenched and parties are not keeping up the morale of ordinary cadres by fielding grassroots workers. The list of candidates for Assembly seats announced by these parties in Haryana showed that there was no hesitation in fielding father-son and father-daughter duos.
“If dynasties are the flavour of Indian politics, Haryana could well be its capital. From the Hoodas of Rohtak, the Chautalas of Sirsa to the Bishnois of Hisar, Haryana is home to at least five prominent political dynasties, which date back at least three generations, all of which are in the fray for the Assembly elections in the State on October 5. The families have also managed to have a stake in power by either en masse switching of loyalties from one national party to another or forming breakaway factions from within,” said a political expert.
Another political observer opined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive narrative against dynasty politics in Congress and regional parties has no relevance in Haryana as all the three leading political parties, including BJP, are saddled with political dynasties. It has been a long-held convention that if a sitting member passes away, his or her family member is given the ticket in the by-election. Dynasty politics is for self-protection and it is not a good sign, they added.
